Midland Park
December 9, 2009 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 9
Students and parents at Little Ivy Learning Center were greeted by their teachers Monday morning, as the classes resumed less than one week after the preschool/kindergarten and child-care center was displaced by a multi-alarm fire at Church of the Good Shepherd Church in Midland Park. Parents, teachers, family, and friends rallied throughout the Thanksgiving weekend to recover as many of Little Ivy’s furnishings, equipment and materials as possible, working until late in the evening Sunday night to allow the independent school to set up shop in the Education Building on the campus of the Old Paramus Reformed Church on East Glen Avenue in Ridgewood. “As we watched the blaze race through the building into the early hours of last Tuesday morning (Nov. 25), my husband
Community rallies to re-open Little Ivy School
and I made ourselves two firm promises. First, that our annual Thanksgiving Feast for our children and their families would go off as scheduled on Wednesday. Second, that we would open our doors somewhere, some way by the end of the holiday weekend on Monday,” said Little Ivy Director Stephanie Bassler. Just hours after the blaze, which raged into the early morning of Nov. 25, Midland Park Recreation Department Director Lori Dent reached out to local churches and community groups to secure a building for Little Ivy’s Thanksgiving Feast. While Dent was able to generate several offers, the feast was held last Wednesday at the Midland Park Church of God, just three blocks away from Little Ivy’s Godwin Avenue campus. “We will never forget the generosity and comfort Pastor Lloyd Vorderstrasse and the congregation of Church of God provided to our children and our families on Thanksgiving Eve,” Bassler said To see the children and parents laughing, playing, and hugging in the company of friends while enjoying our feast just one day after the devastating fire was nothing short of awesome.” During Little Ivy’s Thanksgiving Feast, with about 100 in attendance, the school’s parents and teachers organized lists of volunteers to meet the challenge of reopening the school by Monday. The call was put out for trucks, trailers, packing boxes, and cleaning supplies. Some parents and teachers called their friends and families to contribute to the effort. By mid-afternoon Sunday, Little Ivy hosted an informal Open House at its new Ridgewood campus for its students and their families, many of whom had trans-
ported and scrubbed the school’s furniture and materials starting early Friday morning. While the children explored their new classrooms and playground, parents looked ahead to the start of school and all they had accomplished in three days time. “Taking the time to watch out for one another, to contribute to and to build a community for ourselves and our children, is one of the things that sets Little Ivy apart,” said Bassler, who has led the school since September 2008. “The efforts of the volunteer firefighters and local police during the fire, the outpouring of support from local preschools, churches, businesses and government officials in the days since, and then our teachers, parents and their families and friends, have left us indebted to each of them for their neighborliness and friendship”
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